Indigo Ashes of a Surrogate Sunset
by Paper Lilly Webs
Summary: "It's been eleven months since Karkat left the small town he called home, and eleven months since he's seen his best bro. Without a word been heard from him the entire time he's been gone, Karkat finally gets up and walks all the way back home. Perhaps more than a welcome-home hug is in order." Takes place eleven months after Scarlet Dust. T for swearing and smoking.


**A/N**: If you haven't read "Scarlet Dust of Another Sunrise", I suggest you do that first. Everything that happens in this references that, but I didn't think they'd fit together enough to just be chapters in a single story, so here I am.

I guess you don't have to, but really, I make references like every five lines.

Anyhoo, WARNINGS: A drabble in every sense of the word. Also, I suck at writing confessions, so the end is pretty much complete shit, therefore my apologies, but thank you for reading it anyway! ^-^

Also, this thing is sappy as fuck, so beware.

~Webs

Oh, and a note for reference: __-oOo-__ means start of a flashback. _-oOo-_ means present, and both mean a change in perspective between Dave and KK, though I think that's apparent enough in the writing.

* * *

With Linkin Park playing in the background, Karkat watched his smoke curl into the smoggy skyline, cigarette tucked between his lips without thinking about it. Since he came to Houston eleven months ago, gotten this shit apartment and a steady job at a bookstore, as well as finishing up High School and starting college, time to himself when he wasn't working or doing school was rare, so he savored each moment carefully.

Now was one such moment, sitting on the sill of his open window with one knee tucked to his chest, the other hanging against the brick outside of his building. He leaned his head back against the wood, and ran a hand through his hair, letting out a breath of smoke tiredly. Eleven months, and he hadn't heard a word from either of his parents, or Kankri, or Dave. He could live without contact from his family, but knowing Dave hadn't answered any of his texts or calls hurt more than it should have.

Taking a last, deep drag, he snuffed the end of his cigarette on the side of the windowsill, where there were already scorch marks from previous nights of looking out at the city. There was nothing really remarkable about Houston, especially with his view, but if he looked far enough to the West, he could imagine all the times spent on the fence with the blonde, imagine the empty space of the state-owned property that he knew like the back of his hand.

"Listen to yourself." He muttered, laughing bitterly. "It's like you actually want to go back." Shaking his head, he got up from the window, dropping the cigarette butt into the tray on the small table by the window before shutting the pane. He'd yanked out the disgusting curtains that had come with the apartment, and hadn't ever put up new ones, meaning the small room was bathed in the lights from the street and the last embers of the sunset.

He stood by the window for another moment, red eyes once again wandering to the West and teeth worrying his bottom lip in thought. Once he realized he'd been zoning out, he shook himself, turning away quickly to move to the bathroom for a shower and to brush his teeth; he didn't know how Dave could stand leaving his teeth unclean after a smoke.

He was hit with a pang of loneliness, then shoved the blonde from his mind as he stripped to wash himself off. Standing under the hot water to relax his forever-tense muscles, he was quite content to stay in the steamy shower even after he'd turned off the spray. _A couple more minutes_, he kept telling himself, closing his eyes in grudging contentment.

Finally, when he couldn't handle inhaling only steam, he stepped out, redressing in some clean clothes and leaving the towel over his head, wet hair sticking to his forehead and neck. Looking up into the mirror, he noted that the circles under his eyes hadn't lightened at all since he left. Sleeping had never been something easy for him, but here it was almost impossible, with the ever-constant background noise, and the feeling Karkat got that he lacked security. He knew almost no one here, and didn't _want_ to know them. Dave had called it his "loner-boy syndrome", and Karkat had kicked him for it.

"Idiot, stop thinking about him." He told himself, switching off the light and leaving the bathroom. He shook the towel through his hair several times, then tossed it into the corner, where it landed in the hamper he'd put there when he'd first moved in.

Glancing around the relatively tidy room, he idly looked for his laptop, but made no move to pick it up when he'd found it. Instead, he looked back out the window, where the sun had set past the hills and skyscrapers, turning the sky indigos and violets. Biting his lip again, he made his way over to it, opening it a second time, but in lieu of sitting down, he leaned his forehead against the wood surrounding the glass that had been pushed up, sighing.

His eyes traced the ending of the sunset, the snuffing of the flames. He snorted, not believing that he was thinking about Dave again. It was sunrises that reminded him of their last meeting together, not sunsets. If anything, thinking of him then was depressing, because watching the sun set rather than rise was the opposite of the happy memory he shared with the blonde; the sun setting was almost like that memory was fading.

_If anything, this place has made you think you're a poet. Get your fucking head out of the smog,_ he told himself, but did not move regardless, closing his eyes with the coming night.

__-oOo-__

For eleven months, nothing seemed like it was in place, as if everything had been on a shelf, and an earthquake had shook all it down, leaving everything bare and broken as it lay on the floor.

The day the albino left, Dave had stayed out by the tree for hours, coming to grips with the fact that his bestfriend had just packed up and absconded the hell out of there. He'd stayed out there the entire day, finishing the pack he'd taken from Dirk and reflecting on all the days he'd spent with the albino, and how many more he'd have to make do without him.

He didn't admit to his worried bro when he got home that he was downright terrified of waking up the next morning knowing he wouldn't be going out to the tree that afternoon to meet Karkat. Bro knew something was wrong, but Dave said nothing, knowing he'd find out later when the Vantas' went looking for their son. He knew they'd go to Dave first; they'd been friends forever; everyone knew that.

Finally managing to get past Dirk and to his room, Dave sighed, leaning against his closed door and idly looking around at the place he called home. Nothing had changed, yet everything was different. There was no longer another boy to sit in the beanbag Dave hated, but kept around for him, no other boy to use the second Playstation controller on top of the TV. Dave no longer had anyone to steal the comforter off his bed and curl up in it after a particularly bad shouting match between his parents.

There was no Karkat, and that changed everything.

Sighing again, the blonde pushed off the door to sit against his bed, pulling another cigarette from his pocket and slipping it between his lips. He should have said more, convinced him to stay, but that would have been selfish, wouldn't it? There was no reason for Karkat to stay here, and Dave knew he deserved better than what this shitty town could offer.

But he'd still left too much unsaid. They'd been bestfriends since second grade; they were supposed to tell each other everything, and what he had to say wasn't much, so why hadn't he just said it? They were just two words, two meanings that didn't scare him; it was the plethora of reactions that Karkat would have that terrified him into remaining silent.

"Shit." He ran a hand through his slightly-sweaty hair, air leaving his lungs in a huff of breathey smoke. _You're a fucking coward. You've known for years, and you still hole yourself up in a closet..._ Groaning, he pushed up his shades into his bangs, leaning his head back onto the edge of the mattress. _Karkat could have guessed,_ the other side of his mind tried to convince him. _Yeah, and maybe that's why he left,_ he battled back.

He stopped thinking after that, and didn't think again for eleven months.

_-oOo-_

"Fuck it." Karkat pushed away from the window, closing it harshly and turning back to his room, yanking on a pair of jeans and stuffing a change of clothes into his knapsack, sliding his phone into a pocket. Pausing only to grab his favorite hoodie and his keys, he locked his apartment behind him and leaped down the seven flights of stairs to the lobby. Leaving the building onto the bustling city street, he knew he could afford neither a taxi fare all the way out, nor a rental car, so he turned himself towards the West and started walking.

He got the normal amount of nervous looks because of his eyes and hair, but ignored them, gaze trained on the hills that the sun had set behind. It'd take hours, and he wouldn't get there until well into the next night, but he didn't care. It would give him time to think anyway. God knows he needed to think; even on the nights he did nothing but stare to the West, he did everything he could to keep his mind from straying too far back home. Memories were fine, memories made it seem like things weren't so bad, but Karkat never let himself think about what people would be doing back home, what they would do if he came back.

Well, he couldn't leave it tucked into the corner of his mind anymore.

__-oOo-__

"Little bro, you alright?" Dave looked over his shoulder at his bro, who stood in his doorway and watched him blankly. The younger shrugged, then turned back to his homework, staying silent. "I got a call from the Vantas' today; they said Karks ran away." Dave's fingers tightened involuntarily around his pencil.

"Yeah?" He urged quietly, finding it harder to keep the emotion from his voice than he thought. "So?"

"So, I'm asking you if you're alright."

"Why wouldn't I be alright?" He pretended to be looking over his notes, but he didn't really see the words.

"Maybe because your bestfriend of twelve years up and left you behind?" A small noise escaped Dave's throat, but it was lost in the sound of his snapping pencil. Steadying his breath for a moment, he sat up straight and set the two halves of the pencil on top of his notebook, but didn't look at Dirk.

"I said I'm fine, bro. Lay off." He heard his older brother sigh, then his retreating footsteps.

Dave tried to never lie to his bro; he didn't want that kind of relationship with him, and Dirk always knew something was wrong anyway. Usually, his guardian would press him about it, so it confused Dave that he hadn't, turning his head again in his seat to find he had closed the door.

He stared at it for a moment, then sighed, facing back forward and slumping in his seat as he pushed his shades into his hair. He wasn't alright, and Bro knew that much, though Dave didn't think he knew _how_ wrong everything was. It'd been barely a month since Karkat left, leaving Dave to suffer the bombardment of questions from the police, shared friends, and Karkat's family. He even got a personal call from Kankri, asking where the albino was.

He'd been able to pass off all the questions with ease, especially when his parents got a call from Karkat saying he was alright, but not coming back. He was almost an adult anyway; there was no _reason_ to come back, Dave told himself.

While he had survived almost every question imaginable, and cool-kidded his way through all of them, one question left him utterly silent and staring at his sister, who'd asked him something he still wasn't able to answer, and he doubted he ever would.

_Why didn't you go after him?_

_-oOo-_

The albino thought it was strange his feet didn't hurt; it had been hours since he walked out of Houston, and he had not stopped since he left the city limits. He also thought it strange that he wasn't thirsty; perhaps his mind was too preoccupied?

The road had hardly changed since midnight, a dusty path cutting through the scruffy farmland between Houston and his hometown, Karkat's shoes scuffing along the cracked asphalt of the near-unused, but weather-beaten road. He hadn't taken this road on his way in, per say, though the tracks lay not a mile away, taking the same route into the city.

Karkat breathed deeply the scent of dust and warm farmland, savoring what he hadn't been able to inside Houston. The smog and traffic had always drowned out the familiar scents that he associated with home, but now that he was no longer in reach of those things, everything came back full-force, and Karkat realized he was homesick. Or friendsick. Or Davesick...

He banished that thought, pausing for a minute to take off his sweatshirt and stuff it inside his pack, pulling out his iPod and flipping to a playlist Dave had made for his birthday a couple years ago.

Perking up at the quick beats, he continued walking, analyzing why he wasn't excited about going back home, or about seeing his family, or anything like that. Hell, if Dave wasn't there, he wouldn't be going back at all, and he had no idea why. Dave had changed over the past few years, acted a little differently around him, was... kinder? Softer? At first, Karkat hadn't noticed, and then when he did, he didn't say anything, because it was not only nice, but it hadn't felt out of place at all.

Dave had always been a softie, no matter how much he tried to hide it, and Karkat knew that, so when he started showing it more, it wasn't that he was suddenly kinder or anything, he just let it out more. The albino didn't mind that; he'd been trying to break through Dave's emotional walls since they met.

That last few hours with him, Karkat had known he had just as much more to say as Karkat did, had more words behind his lips than he let on, though he believed it had been that way for a while. Did Dave not trust him enough to say those things in front of him? Was he just as nervous about saying something he'd regret as Karkat was?

He sighed, shaking his head and returning his thoughts to the road in front of him, seeing with surprise that he was only ten miles from his hometown. _Almost there._

_-oOo-_

He started going to the train tracks everyday. He couldn't bring himself to go back to the tree; he wanted to preserve that memory, so everyday, the blonde would hike out to the tracks onto which Karkat had hitchhiked, and sit against the DO NOT CROSS TRACKS sign that was stuck in the ground three miles past the abandoned ranch. Everyday he'd do nothing after school but go out there and sit until Dirk called him back home for dinner.

Today, exactly eleven months since Karkat left, he skipped school and spent all day at the train tracks, watching dust devils and the occasional lizard dart across his feet. He was never more thankful for his shades when the sun reached the highest point in the sky, but he hardly noticed, his arms resting straight out on his raised knees as he fiddled with his polaroid camera with his hands. He'd found it three months ago, and hadn't used it since that day when they were nine. He didn't know if he still had film for it, but had brought it out with him every day since then.

_You are a miserable asshole_, he thought to himself, sighing and running a hand through his sweaty blonde hair. He turned his head without moving his head to look at the lighted screen of his phone that lay in the dust next to him, a message open to Karkat's number. The albino hadn't answered his phone in the entirety of time he'd been gone, and Dave had just kind of given up. _Maybe he really did leave because he found out._

He groaned, breaking his pokerface and screwing his eyes shut as he brought his other hand to his hair. _He probably left because he couldn't think of you that way. Good job, asshole. Way to alienate your bestfriend._

His phone started buzzing, and if you had asked him eleven months ago, he would have said he was hoping it was Karkat, but he'd stopped growing excited whenever he got a message. And sure enough, as he picked it up to read it, it was only from Dirk, asking him if he'd be home any time soon.

Instead of answering, Dave relocked his phone and set it back down. School had gotten out hours ago, the time nearing eight in the evening. The sky was slowly turning into vermillions and crimsons, and though it was the sunset he was looking at, he couldn't help but think of that last morning with the other boy. Even though Dave had known he'd been planning to leave, for... years, it was still a shock when Gamzee had told him. Dave was actually stupid enough to think Karkat had given up the notion of running away, despite the fact that the albino had been talking about it since they were ten.

_"Hey, Dave." The past blonde looked away from the TV to his bestfriend, who sat huddled on the bed next to him with his knees to his chest, completely swaddled in Dave's comforter. Karkat's eyes were trained straight ahead, glazed over slightly in thought. He'd come over a couple hours ago when his parents' shouting had become too much. It happened more often that the blonde would like to admit._

_"Sup, Kitkat." He encouraged, gaze flicking back to his videogame._

_"I want to leave." Dave paused for a moment before nodding; it was getting late anyway. He set down his controller and made a move to stand._

_"I can walk you back home." Karkat punched his shoulder, sending him a glare._

_"Not go home, dipshit." Dave settled back down in confusion, giving his full attention to the albino. "I mean leave this _town_, this stupid, fucked up city." He mumbled, looking away from Dave as the blonde's heart sank._

_"You mean run away?" His only response was a nod. "Why?"_

_"I don't like it here. I can't _do_ anything here, and my parents..." He faltered, wrapping the blanket tighter around himself. "I don't think I can live with them until I'm eighteen. I want to leave._

Present Dave sighed again, shaking the memory away in favor of picking up his phone and responding to his bro, saying he'd be back before ten. He really didn't think he'd be able to go home right now and maintain his pokerface. If Bro saw him then, there'd be no hiding it, even though he suspected Dirk already knew.

_Hell, I bet the whole fucking world knows. You're not exactly opaque about it._ Glancing back at his phone to check the time, he calculated that he had about two hours before he needed to start walking back, and settled himself back down to spend that time with his eyes closed against the dying sunlight.

_-oOo-_

Being back was weird as fuck. He'd automatically walked straight for downtown, in the direction of the only apartment building, and he didn't know why, but he expected things to be different. The town wasn't big, but it was prone to change even when he lived there, so as the albino browsed through the familiar streets towards Dave's building, his eyes kept darting around at the nostalgic places and objects. He'd been gone almost a year; had so much really stayed the same?

He paused outside the coffee shop he and Dave used to get Hot Chocolate from, as neither liked coffee much, inhaling the familiar scent with a slight smile. He'd never liked the shops in Houston as much as he liked this one.

Shaking himself once, he forced his feet back into action, and stuck his hands in his pockets of the hoodie he'd put on once night had decided to set in. It was quickly nearing nine o'clock, a time rather early if he remembered the two Striders' sleeping habits. Surely at least Dirk would be up, if Dave had suddenly picked up a normal sleep schedule, and even after all this time, he had no qualms whatsoever with waking him abruptly.

He smiled at the thought, finally arriving at the building. He looked up at it for a moment, counting the windows up to Dirk's and Dave's apartment, eyes quickly scanning the broken brick and mortar, then frowned, see their sitting room light off. They left it on when they were at home, didn't they? He strode up to the door, pushing the ringer for their room, then stood back and waited. Nothing.

His frown deepened as he pressed it again, though after another several minutes of silence, he gave up, turning away with a sigh. They weren't back yet, but there was no telling just _when_ they'd be back. Karkat was finally starting to feel the fatigue of twenty-three hours of walking, and didn't know how long he could stand there waiting.

_It'd be quite a way to say I'm back, though,_ he thought with a mild smile. _Sleep literally on their doorstep and make them carry me up the thirty-six godforsaken flights._

But he decided against it, and started walking again, to where, he didn't know; he needed a place to sleep, as he wasn't going back to Houston at least until tomorrow night. There were only a few hotels in the town, the majority of which were very low quality, though they seemed the only thing he could afford, so he started back down the street for the nearest hotel, pulling out his wallet to leaf through the money in there.

As he turned the corner, flashing lights caught his eyes, and he looked up, not stopping his easy gait. To his right was the club Dave used to DJ at, doors open to let out the ear-thumping music and tri-color strobe lights. He'd never liked it around here, so sped up a step, then paused, looking back over his shoulder at the club. _I wonder if Dave still has a job there._ He turned back, and cut down the alley next to the building towards the back parking lot. If Dave's hours were still the same, he should be getting there around then, in his stupid, pretentious, cherry-red convertible.

He felt a pang to find that the lot was empty. He checked his watch, and deciding that it was late enough that no one would recognize him, he slipped through the back door and made his way into the main hall, where the room was full of flashing lights and drunk dancers. He had only come with Dave once or twice, so was confident the barkeeper did not know him as he walked over to him.

"Hey!" The albino called over the deafening music, catching the man's attention. "Does Dave Strider still work here?!"

"Yeah, but he's got the Friday and Saturday night gigs! Come for him then!" He shook his head exasperatedly as he turned away from Karkat, returning to his work.

The boy shouted a thanks before turning and leaving the way he'd come in. So Dave had gotten the hottest gigs in the house; that didn't surprise him in the least, not really. Dirk had been teaching him to use the turntables since before Karkat knew him, and even by then, Karkat knew him to be a pro.

But the albino sighed as he stood on the step outside the back door, running his hand through his hair. Dave wasn't at home, and he wasn't at the club, and Karkat didn't know if he had another job or not. Why wouldn't he just answer his _phone_–

He jerked his head up, an idea forming in his mind before he jumped off the step and started walking again, this time a little faster, but only just.

_-oOo-_

Dave let out his last breath of smoke, putting out the butt of his cigarette with his shoe before standing up from the dusty ground. He still had about an hour, but he wanted to walk slow, and he had to stop back at the tree, where he'd dropped his backpack before coming out here.

It was his original intention to stay at the tree, but then couldn't bring himself to, so had left his stuff and kept walking to his normal place. Looking at it now, he wished he hadn't left his bag, because going back to the tree was last thing he wanted to do right now. 'Sides, it was out of his way to hike all the way back there, instead of cutting through the field straight to the road leading into town.

He sighed again, feet moving slowly through the Texan dust as he made his way back to the path leading to the tree. He'd long since gotten used to there always being dirt in his shoes, but nowadays it just annoyed him, making his feet itch uncomfortably. There wasn't much of this dust downtown, and it always made him remember the cloud of the stuff that had dissipated behind Karkat as he left.

_Shit, you're really being a sap, aren't you?_ He shook his head, sticking his hands in his pockets and watching his feet as he walked.

He quickly lost track of time, and before he knew it, he was at the tree again, his backpack slumped against the trunk like a drunk at a bar, and the sun was shining in between two hills, hitting the field behind him and backlighting everything in front of him. Perhaps that's why he had to straighten completely before he saw the boy standing not ten feet away, gaze lifting to suddenly connect with eyes he'd never admit he missed so much.

_-oOo-_

He hadn't expected him to be there, not really. He had kept himself from thinking that maybe Dave had moved, because then he wouldn't have any way to contact him, and he really couldn't bring himself to accept that.

But for it to have been so easy to find him, arriving like clockwork to the same place at the same time? That was a little too much to hope for.

Karkat stood frozen, watching the blonde in as much disbelief as Dave showed him, hand tightening around the strap of his bag. Goddamn, Dave looked... amazing, framed in the dying sunlight, with the rays playing through his hair. He was covered in dust, and it had probably been a couple days since he'd had a good shower, but this was how Karkat knew him, gruff and unclean.

Dave took a tentative step forward, as if he expected Karkat to disappear if he tilted his head enough, then took another, then another, until he yanked Karkat into his arms, the albino setting down his bag to hug him back, feeling this was much too like one of his romcoms.

Neither boy said anything, Karkat quite content to bury his face in Dave's shoulder and inhale his scent like a creeper. Honestly, he didn't care, not when feeling Dave's heartbeat against his own.

S-Surely the blonde could feel Karkat's own racing heart, his quickened breathing? Surely he could tell just from holding him that being this close was sending his brain into a frenzy?

"Hey, Karkles." The blonde whispered, arms tightening.

"Hey, blondie. Long time no see." Dave buried his nose in his neck, Karkat feeling the grin forming against his skin.

The two of them stood there for a good few minutes before pulling away, Dave's face a red to match Karkat's eyes. He shifted feet a little, scratching the back of his neck as Karkat laughed. "So, um..." The albino just smiled, relieved that he'd managed to find him.

"So."

"What... What are you doing back?" Dave's gaze flickered to Karkat for a moment, but it didn't stay long, his blush instead reddening.

Karkat faltered, unsure of the real answer himself. "Um, I needed a break. City-life isn't all it's cracked up to be." Dave seemed to accept this, though his blush hadn't receded yet, making Karkat a little uncomfortable. Did he have something on his face, or was there another reason?

"You talked to your family yet?" Karkat snorted at that.

"Are you fucking serious? When I left, I meant I was leaving for good. 'They even live around here anymore?"

"No, actually. They moved downtown. How'd you know?" He shrugged in response to Dave's questioning look, eyeing the cigarette pack half-hidden in Dave's jeans pocket. He'd half-hoped Dave had quit.

"You got any extra, or did you use 'em all?" Dave smiled sheepishly, letting that answer. The albino just laughed slightly, shaking his head before plopping down against the trunk of the tree after kicking his bag over there.

It only took a couple of seconds for Dave to join him, letting out a puff of air as he settled next to Karkat. He watched him the entire time, wondering if anything had changed since he left, and if it'd be noticeable.

Dave caught him looking after tucking his arms behind his head, and smirked his lopsided smirk. "Like what you see, sweetheart?" Karkat stuck out his tongue and was glad the dying sunlight was too dim to see the flush spreading over his nose.

"Shut up. It's almost been a year since I've seen you. And don't think I hadn't seen you checking me out." He counterattacked, bumping his shoulder lightly against the other boy's. Dave only flicked his forehead in response.

It was weird; it was like nothing had changed between them, and Karkat didn't know if he was happy or scared about that fact. Dave didn't seem to notice, relaxed with a happy smile on his face, even though he wasn't looking at Karkat.

"How long you back for?" The albino shrugged.

"A day or two. I didn't exactly tell my boss I was taking this surprise vacation." He yawned, rubbing a hand over his face.

"I guess you still have a shit sleeping schedule then." Dave laughed, though eyed the bags under Karkat's eyes with disdain.

"Did you think it'd be easier to fall asleep in a fucking _city_ than here?"

"'Thought it'd be easier without your parents screamin' at each other at three in the morning." He fell silent at that, fidgeting slightly against the tree trunk.

"'Spent most nights at your house anyway." Hearing Dave make a small sound at that, he looked up and smirked, finding the blonde's blush to have not faded at all, but deciding not to bring it up. "So, what's new? Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

"Eh, not much. Bro finally grew the balls to ask out English." It was hard not to laugh at that; Dirk had been pining over the Australian for fucking years.

"What about you?" Dave cocked his head in Karkat's direction, surprised.

"What about me?" Shifting again, Karkat looked away, scratching the back of his neck much like Dave had not long ago. He lightly bit his lip in thought, wondering if he actually wanted to know.

"You haven't dated anyone since John moved. 'Found anyone new?" Only when the silence had stretched on for several minutes did Karkat look up again. Dave was watching him pensively, face not as blank as usual, head tilted towards the albino with his arms still tucked behind it. Karkat met his gaze with slight nervousness; why was he looking at him like that? "U-Um, you don't have to answer or anything, I was just wonder–"

He was cut off by a great groan from Dave, who turned back away with his face scrunched up. "You're making this difficult as fuck, kitkat." Karkat only frowned in confusion, especially when Dave reached over to poke his cheek. "Are you fucking blind as well as stupid?"

"What the fuck are you talking about, nookwhiffer?" He growled, bending his face away from the intruding finger. Dave just sighed.

"'Can't believe you still haven't noticed, karkittenmittens. Jade is more fucking perceptive than you are." Confusion only mounting, Karkat's frown deepened.

"What, are you and Jade a thing now? You're not making sense." Dave growled lowly, exasperatedly turning to yank the front of Karkat's shirt forward and mash their lips together.

Karkat let out a small squeak and the blonde pulled back, Dave flushed a cherry-red scarlet as he avoided Karkat's eyes. "No, I haven't found anyone new."

"O-O-Obviously." Karkat stuttered dumbly in response. Nope, his bestfriend had not just kissed him. Dave Strider, albeit completely and utterly gay, did not just kiss him. Except he did, leaving Karkat a muddle of emotions and confusion.

Suddenly regaining normal brain functions, the albino whipped around to the blonde. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" Not sure himself why he was yelling, the look of surprise on Dave's face was understandable.

"What the hell do you think it was for?" Dave inquired, voice not calm, but not stressed either. "I've been crushing on you for fucking years."

"B-B-But that's–" The boy trembled a little, nothing making an ounce of sense. Dave had changed a little the past few years, but wasn't that growing up? W-Wasn't that– "But what about..." All those times he said he wasn't interested in anybody... Shit, he really was blind, wasn't he?

"Sorry." Dave mumbled, rousing the other boy from his thoughts. "I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have said anything." He let out a breath, the youngest Strider looking like he was going to launch into another apology, but Karkat clapped a hand over his mouth before he could.

"Stop it. Don't apologize. Just... shit."

"Fgawht?" The blonde tried speaking around his hand, making so move to push it away.

"You could have at least told me sooner." He looked away from Karkat, looking trodden and downcast, making Karkat remove his hand.

"'Didn't want you to leave. 'Was scared you would."

"I wouldn't have left." Karkat let out a breath, leaning back against the trunk and catching Dave's shocked look out of the corner of his eye. "I would've thought it was some sick joke, but I wouldn't have left. 'Specially since..." He faltered, Dave's blatant drop of pokerface unnerving.

"Since what?"

"Well, since I probably would've kissed you first." He avoided looking anywhere near Dave after saying this, his own blush dusting the bridge of his nose again.

Instead of a tirade of questions as Karkat had been expecting, he was yanked sideways into a bone-crushing hug, letting out a startled yelp. "That better mean what I think it means." Dave mumbled into his shoulder.

"Yes, yes, it means what you think it is, so let me go!" He eventually struggled out of his grip, Dave grinning a grin to end all grins. Karkat only flushed darker. "Stop looking at me like that!"

"Why~?" The blonde leaned closer, noses barely an inch from each other and smirk back in place, though this one wasn't as teasing as per his usual. It was kind of... endearing? "I finally get to stare at you shamelessly. Who're you to deny me the right to oggle at what I assume to be my new boyfriend?" Squeaking again, Karkat looked away abruptly. Shit, he'd kept his cool this long, why'd he have to falter _now_?

Dave just laughed, an arm wrapping around his shoulders to pull him into a half-hug. "I'm glad you're back, Karkles, even if it's only for a few days."

"I'm glad too." He mumbled back after a few seconds. Dave chuckled, unbelievably happy with this turn of events as he settled his cheek on the top of Karkat's head. It was oddly comforting, and the albino felt himself relaxing after a few minutes.

Neither said anything for a while, which only encouraged Karkat's body to slack with fatigue against Dave, head settled on Dave's shoulder. Dave had chuckled again at that, though the sound was quiet and soft, not disturbing the peace that had settled over them.

_Shit, today actually just happened_, Karkat thought, closing his eyes. He sincerely hoped he wouldn't wake up tomorrow and find out that it hadn't, though judging from his aching feet and sore legs as well as parched throat, he'd have trouble convincing himself of that. Actually, not being awake right now seemed like a very good idea, and sighed, already more-than-half-asleep.

Rousing sometime later, and only enough to feel the blonde press a kiss to his hair, Karkat smiled slightly. It should have been weird for his bestfriend to do that, but he had decided ages ago that Dave was more than that; what was weird was that it _wasn't_ weird at all to feel a smile forming on Dave's lips as he stayed resting on the top of his head.

It was the furthest thing from weird anything had ever been, and he thought he finally understood what Dave had meant all along.

* * *

**A/N**: Thank you so much for reading! This is far from my best, and far from a good piece of literature, but it means the world to me that you suffered through it to the end! ^-^ Seriously, thank you.

~Webs


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